"I vote on all of the Hillsboro School Measures," said Hall,
who lives in unincorporated Multnomah County, west of Forest Park.

Because a small chunk of Hall's 300-acre property is in the
Hillsboro School District, Multnomah County must include the district's ballot
items in its online voters' guide. Hall gets her own, unique ballot each time.

Most years, the Hillsboro item would show up on all mailed voters' guide, too. This year, Multnomah County Elections spokesman Eric Sample said, it was more cost effective to mail separate guides for each district because there are so few measures up for consideration.

Hall, who lives west of Forest Park on the eastern outskirts
of North Plains, used to live within the Portland Public Schools. Her two kids
attended Skyline Elementary, but her house was so far out in the country, their
bus ride was agonizingly long.

When it snowed, the school bus couldn't make it up the hill to
Hall's house. Instead, the driver dropped her kids off two miles from home.

"If you can't get a bus up here, what makes you think I can
get down there?" she said.

Hall, a retired Hillsboro police officer, wasn't happy. She
got a lawyer and won the right to have her house – which sits on two acres of
her 300-acre property – moved into the Hillsboro School District.

"It was just a better fit," she said.

Her kids are grown now, but Hall still votes on Hillsboro school
matters. She said she won't be switching back anytime soon.

Hall's isn't the only Multnomah County property that lies in
jurisdictional overlap. These so-called "precinct splits" are littered throughout
the metro area.

In past elections, Multnomah County residents might also
have noticed Milwaukie City Council races in the voters' guide, despite the
fact that Milwaukie is a Clackamas County city.

The reason: Milwaukie's northern boundary dips into
Multnomah County just far enough to affect one property.

Even though nobody registers the Precision Castparts
building at 4600 S.E. Harney Drive as a voting address, election law
requires Multnomah County Elections Division to include Milwaukie ballot
measures in the voters' pamphlet. The division also must draft a special ballot for this
address.

"We have one prepared if we need it, but that's never going
to be the case," Sample said.

Unsurprisingly, no Milwaukie candidate has ever exercised
the option to place a statement in the Multnomah County voters' pamphlet.

The oldest available city zoning maps, from the mid-1960s,
show the property has been in Milwaukie at least that long, said Ryan Marquardt,
a senior planner with the city.

"As to why it juts into Multnomah County, we don't really
know," Marquardt said. "It's a little bit of a jurisdictional mess."

Our local forefathers' rationale in drawing Greater
Portland's governing boundaries has been lost to time.

The quirks aren't limited to Multnomah County. Two Washington
County residents reside in the Lake Oswego School District, and a handful live
in the Scappoose School District.

The precinct splits create extra work for elections
employees who have to draft unique ballots, but the extra time and cost of
printing special ballots and voters' pamphlet information is negligible, Sample
said.

"It does create a level of complexity, but it doesn't really
have a huge impact on us," he said.

The impact on Hall is slightly more significant. As the only
person in precinct 3102, split L, Hall's vote on Hillsboro School District
matters is no secret. Anyone who checks the precinct's vote total will see a
single ballot cast, for or against. Hall doesn't mind the lack of anonymity.

"It's my opinion, and if they don't like it, that's too bad,"
she said.

This story has been edited to reflect a correction. The original version should have stated that Multnomah County mailed separate voters' guides to voters in each district this year.